Week in Science: SpaceX's ninth Starship test flight is a mixed bag

View in web browser

May 30—This week, SpaceX's ninth Starship test flight yields mixed results, a YouTuber brings attention to "forever chemicals," and hypervelocity stars are screaming through the Milky Way. Enjoy and have a great weekend! —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

Top Stories

YouTube Science Star Derek Muller Confronts PFAS "Forever Chemicals"—In His Own Blood YouTube star Derek Muller built an 18-million-subscriber YouTube empire by challenging misconceptions about science. Now his own blood test and a sudden EPA reversal give his work urgent relevance. Deni Ellis Béchard

Hypervelocity Stars Hint at a Supermassive Black Hole Right Next Door Some stars streaking through the Milky Way at millions of kilometers per hour probably trace back to a supermassive black hole in a neighboring galaxy Phil Plait

SpaceX's Ninth Starship Test Flight Delivers Mixed Results The largest, most powerful launch vehicle ever built is meant to be a key part of SpaceX's plans to send humans to Mars—and NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon, too Gayoung Lee

New Contacts Let You See Infrared Light—Even with Your Eyes Closed Straight out of science fiction, these contact lenses convert infrared light into visible light that humans can see Elizabeth Gibney, Nature magazine

What FDA's Planned Limits on COVID Vaccinations Mean for Health Despite the fact that vaccines against COVID have already undergone strict safety reviews and that people continue to die from the disease, Trump's FDA is moving to reduce access to annual COVID boosters for healthy Americans Stephanie Armour, KFF Health News

Want to dive deeper into the science you care most about? Consider a subscription to Scientific American.

Building an LLM for Dolphin Chatter A large language model for dolphin vocalization could let us better understand these beloved marine mammals Melissa Hobson, Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

The Creepy Calculus of Measuring Death Risk Meet micromorts and microlives, statistical units that help mathematicians to calculate risk Manon Bischoff

Ministrokes Can Be Just as Dangerous for the Brain as Regular Strokes Ministrokes, also known as transient ischemic attacks, can eventually lead to cognitive declines as steep as those that follow a full-on stroke, new research finds Paula Span, KFF Health News

These Climbers Summited Mount Everest in Record Time. Did Inhaling Xenon Help? British climbers recently reached the top of Mount Everest in record time. They inhaled xenon gas before the trip. But was that the decisive factor? Stephanie Pappas

Republican Megabill Called a 'Nightmare Scenario' for Clean Energy The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed by the House of Representatives last week, would slow efforts to green the energy system as climate change accelerated Benjamin Storrow, E&E News

Astronomers Discover Mysterious Object Bursting with X-Rays A celestial object some 15,000 light-years away is emitting bright flashes of radio and X-rays that scientists are struggling to explain Robert Lea, SPACE.com

Elon Musk's Grok Chatbot Has Started Reciting Climate Denial Talking Points The latest version of Grok, the chatbot created by Elon Musk's xAI, is promoting fringe climate viewpoints in a way it hasn't done before, observers say Scott Waldman, E&E News

Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters here. Scientific American One New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004 Support our mission, subscribe to Scientific American here Unsubscribe  |  Preferences Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us